Maxon releases Redshift 2025
Maxon’s overview of its Fall 2024 product releases. The section on Redshift 2025 starts at 09:15.
Maxon has released Redshift 2025, the latest major version of the GPU renderer.
Redshift 2025.0 overhauls the caustics system, including support for Brute Force caustics, and further updates the non-photorealistic rendering (NPR) toolset.
New version numbering and system requirements
Redshift 2025.0 is a change of version numbering for the software: under the previous numbering convention, it would have been Redshift 3.6.05 or Redshift 3.7.
It also marks the first change to the versions of host applications supported for quite some time, with Redshift now requiring slightly newer versions of Blender, Cinema 4D, Houdini and Katana.
Caustics: new Brute Force mode and Global Caustics setting
Redshift 2025.0 updates the caustics system, which replicates the patterns generated when light is refracted by curved surfaces, particularly of transparent materials like glass or water.
Key changes include support for Brute Force caustics (above), intended to provide better results with large light sources like Dome or Area lights than the existing Photon Mapped caustics.
Caustics can also now be enabled or disabled via a single scene-wide Global Caustics setting.
NPR: more customizable outline rendering and tonemap patterns
The non-photorealistic rendering system introduced in Redshift 3.6 also gets another update.
New features include support for Contour tone mapping, making it possible to assign patterns or color gradients to toon outlines; and Pen and Pencil modes to give outlines a more hand-drawn look.
In addition, the Tonemap Pattern shader now supports custom inputs, making it possible to use custom textures to control hatching and half-tone pattern effects in non-photorealistic renders.
Other changes
Other changes include a new Volume Depth AOV. Like the existing Depth AOV, it generates a Z-depth pass, but is designed specifically for VDB volumes, like clouds or smoke.
The Sprite Node now accepts procedural shaders as an input, making it possible to generate stencile textures procedurally, rather than having to load an external texture.
Price and system requirements
Redshift 2025.0 is compatible with Windows 10+, glibc 2.17+ Linux and macOS 13.3+.
The renderer’s integration plugins are compatible with 3ds Max 2018+, Blender 3.1+, Cinema 4D R25+, Houdini 18.5+, Katana 4.5+ and Maya 2018+ (Maya 2022+ on Linux).
The software is rental-only, with subscriptions costing $45/month, up $1/month since the previous release, or $264/year.
Read a full list of changes in Redshift 2025.0 on the Redshift forum
(Login required)
Have your say on this story by following CG Channel on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). As well as being able to comment on stories, followers of our social media accounts can see videos we don’t post on the site itself, including making-ofs for the latest VFX movies, animations, games cinematics and motion graphics projects.